Month April 2026

Interviewing Is a Game. Learn the Rules.

**I just did a session on this and figured I would share with the group** Most candidates treat every step of the hiring process like a test they have to pass. They prepare answers, hope for the best, and wait…

How One Candidate Used AI to Stand Out Before the Interview

If you’ve ever moved to a new city, you know how this goes. You’re busy. You don’t know the players yet.And networking? It’s always something you’ll “get to later.” I’ve been talking to several engineering leaders in Charlotte lately who…

Candidate-Sourced Market Signal

There have been mentions in the market of a potential contract QA automation opportunity focused on supporting the transition from manual QA to automation (Selenium / Cypress). Pratt Miller does not currently show a publicly posted role of this type…

How to Vet a Staffing Firm Submission Process

A friend got double-submitted by two staffing firms and ended up in a dispute after an offer last week for a performance gig. The details were vague, client name was shared, a canned job description was used, but there was…

Replaced a Spreadsheet Habit with an AI Engine

AI Automation: Project Spotlight Their team works on one of the hardest problems in public health: improving access to care and services across the U.S. To do that, they have to constantly answer a simple but painful question: Who exactly…

When Candidates Are Sent Into The Wrong Room

I had a friend call me last week after an interview: upset, and crying. She’s a strong manual QA tester. Solid fundamentals. The kind of person who can break down a product, find edge cases others miss, and actually think…

When Feedback Actually Changes Something

I’ve had a pretty firm stance on interview feedback since I was in my early teens. Silence in hiring doesn’t sit right. Not because I need to log feedback somewhere.Because candidates want to understand what happened, and if I’m the…

When AI Shows Up in the Interview

Rethinking how we evaluate engineers. This is a recap of a conversation I caught in my Promptmates community that felt relevant enough to reshare. The original question being discussed was around a pattern some hiring teams are noticing in interviews…